Social Neuroscience[Professor Name]

[Class and Section Number]

Today’s Learning Objectives

1. Define social neuroscience and describe its major goals.

2. Describe how measures of brain activity such as EEG

and fMRI are used to make inferences about social

processes.

3. Discuss how social categorization occurs.

4. Describe how simulation may be used to make

inferences about others.

5. Discuss the ways in which other people can cause stress

and also protect us against stress.

Warm-Up Discussion: IAT

1. Were you surprised by your results?

2. How do you think most people would probably score on this test?

3. What kinds of experiences do you think lead to the formation of implicit attitudes?

4. What might be done to overcome these automatic responses?

Overview

• What is Social Neuroscience?• Neuroscience of Social Categorization• Neuroscience of Understanding Others’ Minds• Stress & Hormones

Social Neuroscience

Social Neuroscience Methods

Measuring brain activity Electrical activity (EEG) Blood flow (fMRI)

Measuring hormones Cortisol

Overview

• What is Social Neuroscience?• Neuroscience of Social Categorization• Neuroscience of Understanding Others’ Minds• Stress & Hormones

Social Categorization

Mentally classifying someone as belonging to a social group

Stereotypes Beliefs about social groups Social categorization is first step

Research question: How automatic is social categorization?

Electroencephalogram(EEG)

A measure of electrical activity (generated by neurons)

EEG Research on Social Categorization

Method: Participants view pictures of

people of different social categories

Results: Brain activity looks different

when viewing members of different social groups

Apparent at 200ms Differences seen even if task

is not to categorize

CAT: The Muddiest Point

What was the muddiest point about today’s class?

Write down what concept you are still struggling to understand.

(add content based on CAT from Day 1)

CAT: The Muddiest Point Review

Overview

• What is Social Neuroscience?• Neuroscience of Social Categorization• Neuroscience of Understanding Others’

Minds• Stress & Hormones

Sally-Ann Task

Developmental Changes in Theory of Mind

Mental State Inference

Why is mental state inference necessary? How is this accomplished?

Simulation hypothesis

fMRI

Testing Simulation Hypothesis Are the same brain regions used

for thinking about our own mental states AND thinking about others?

Method (in fMRI scanner): Think about yourself Think about others

Results

Check your understanding: Explain the findings in your own words.

Activity: Design a Social Neuroscience Study

Spend 5 minutes designing a social neuroscience study using fMRI and prepare to give a speech presenting your idea to the class.

Overview

• What is Social Neuroscience?• Neuroscience of Social Categorization• Neuroscience of Understanding Others’ Minds• Stress and Hormones

Stress

A threat or challenge to well-being

Examples of stressors?

Stress Response

Using Cortisol to Study Stress Others as a source of stress

Concern over being evaluated by others

Interacting with outgroup members

Others as a source of protection from stress Social support as a buffer against

stress

Defining Features Matrix: Social Neuroscience Methods

Is this true of EEG?

Is this true of fMRI?

Is this true of neuroendocrine measures?

Measures which regions of the brain are active

Informs researchers about how the brain influences social behavior

Uses hormones to measure stress levels

Measures the timing of neural responses

Painless to administer

Informs researchers about how the brain responds to social information

Photo Attribution

Slide 1Photo Credit: Closeup portrait of a group of business people laughing Richard foster https://www.flickr.com/photos/93963757@N05/8551937456 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Slide 3Photo Credit: brain picture Allan Ajifo https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14599057094/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slide 6

Photo Credit: Amygdala Life Science Databases(LSDB) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdalofugal_pathway#/media/File:Amygdala.png http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en

Slide 8Photo Credit: Day 19.07 double G's Frerieke https://www.flickr.com/photos/9399948@N05/5956599974/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

Slide 9

Photo Credit: Institut of Psychology Szeged EEG Laboratory 3 Pataki Márta https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Institut_of_Psychology_Szeged_EEG_Laboratory_3.jpg#/media/File:Institut_of_Psychology_Szeged_EEG_Laboratory_3.jpg http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Slide 10

Photo Credit: africa, african, black, care, cheerful, clinic, doctor, www.audio-luci-store.it https://www.flickr.com/photos/audiolucistore/15633607954 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Photo Credit: Testimonial1 herlitz_pbs https://www.flickr.com/photos/herlitzpbs/6306006014/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/Photo Credit: museum tour guide picture www.audio-luci-store.it https://www.flickr.com/photos/audiolucistore/11047195513/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slides 11&12

Photo Credit: Illustrated silhouette of a black cat nehtaeh79 http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/16624 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Slide 12Photo Credit: digital-drugs-binaural-beats digitalbob8 https://www.flickr.com/photos/44568283@N02/4097561067 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slide 15Photo Credit: Untitled Rowena Waack https://www.flickr.com/photos/12356241@N03/5297559184/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Photo Attribution

Slide 16Photo Credit: Jen's Brain (Doesn't it look smart?) Andy Carlson https://www.flickr.com/photos/53535391@N00/2469630798/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Slide 17Photo Credit: Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens - Stephen and Tahn (May 2009) Marley Cook https://www.flickr.com/photos/39528050@N07/3716674529/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slide 19Photo Credit: 01 Siemens MAGNETOM Trio Image Editor https://www.flickr.com/photos/11304375@N07/3081315619 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slide 21Photo Credit: stress bottled_void https://www.flickr.com/photos/22964099@N05/2204059683 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Slide 23Photo Credit: Paris_MontmartreBasillica.JPG Ed and Eddie https://www.flickr.com/photos/edandeddie/10340299033/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/